


Princess to Sorceress

by VampirePaladin



Category: Thundarr the Barbarian (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-29
Updated: 2012-11-29
Packaged: 2017-11-19 21:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/pseuds/VampirePaladin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ariel's life with her stepfather and meeting Thundarr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Princess to Sorceress

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



Ariel often bounced on her stepfather’s knee as he read books. Sometimes, he would purposely pick a book of stories with pictures. He would act like it was vitally important magical research that he had to get done. Really, he read it so she could see the pictures and he could answer her thousand and one questions about what was happening in his books.

“What’s that?”

“That is a princess, Ariel.”

“She’s so pretty. What is that?” Ariel pointed at another picture.

“That is a king.”

“What does a king do?”

“A king rules over people and keeps law and order.”

“That is like you!”

Sabian chuckled. “I guess it is.”

“So if you are a king, then I am a princess!”

“Does that mean I have to call you Princess Ariel now?”

Ariel nodded at her stepfather as she smiled up at him.

From that day on her father ordered everyone to refer to her as Princess Ariel, whether they were servant, slave or his fellow wizard. 

During the years she learnt to read on her own and no longer needed to sit on her stepfather’s knee while he read. Now, she could pursue books on her own. She still found time for her beloved fairy tales, but she also discovered new books. She learnt about history, science, ethics, anything that the humans of the distant past had written about she would read. It was all so amazing to her. 

She also learnt magic, just like her stepfather. Ariel was not the most powerful wizard, but she did discover that she could learn at an unusual speed that others could not. A spell would only have to be demonstrated once to her before she could replicate it on her own. Her stepfather would brag about her amazing talent. She would stand with her hands behind her back and a little proud half smile on her lips.

One day, Ariel was sitting in a window seat in her bedroom. She was propped up by many plump cushions. In her hands was one of many books about the Sun Sword. It was a curious relic her stepfather had acquired. He had no interest in it, so when she asked if she could have what looked like just a plain hilt with no blade, he had made no objection at all. Her father was convinced it was a broken magical item and of no value. She could not escape the feeling deep in the pit of her stomach that there was more to it than just a broken hilt.

The telltale scream of an enraged mok rang out from below. She set the book down and turned to look down at the slave pits. Things like this happened all the time, a slave would complain and would have to be punished. She watched her father’s machines advance on a mok that was chained up. She could faintly see the blood of many lashings on its back, matting the fur together.

She would have turned her attention back to the book and forgot about it as another everyday occurrence if she had not heard the sound of metal breaking. Her head snapped in the direction. A blonde man in the dark furs of a barbarian had ripped his chains. The man gave a cry from deep inside his throat that made the very stones shake as he leapt on the machine that was raising a whip to strike the mok.

She held her breath as she watched him grapple with the mechanical monstrosity. The man was thrown back and forth as the machine tried to toss him free. He had the upper hand until the other machines approached and pulled the wild man off. One hit the man with a device that would send an electric current through his body. The man’s body jerked before he was still.

Ariel knew he was still alive, they made sure to never kill a slave if they did not have to. She was surprised herself when she realized she was glad that he was not dead. Ariel had never seen one slave but themselves in danger for another, especially when it looked like there would be nothing to gain from it.

She left her seat and walked out of her comfortable room. It was time for her to practice her magic anyways. Today, she found her spells failing her as she found her thoughts continuously drift to the handsome bulk of muscle. It finally grew too much and she abandoned her studies a third of the way through of them.

Ariel found herself walking down flight after flight of stairs. She was heading down to the cells, lower even than the normal slave quarters. This was the place where they kept the troublesome slaves. Her suspicions were correct and the blonde slave was in one of the cells. He was sitting up and his eyes followed every movement.

“You there, why did you help the mok?”

“I am not ‘you there’ I am Thundarr.”

“Thunder?”

“No, Thundarr.”

“And you are a barbarian?”

“Yes.”

“So why did you help the mok, Thundarr the barbarian?” she had just a hint of lilt when she said who he was.

“He is an old friend of mine. Thundarr always helps his friends.”

“Friend? But he is just a mok.”

“A mok is better than an evil wizard!”

“Why- I… the nerve of-“ Ariel turned and stomped away. No slave had ever spoken to her like that before. She was in between anger and shock, either way she was speechless.

She spent her following days trying to put the events from her mind. Instead, Ariel tried to focus on her research of the Sun Sword. Everything she read and all of her magical tests said that it should work completely fine. Yet, it would not work for her. According to her book it took a true and noble heart to use it. She did not lie and she was a princess, so why didn’t it work for her?

Ariel began to walk. She passed the golden hilt from hand to hand as she blindly walked, her mind far away from her body. The only answer was that she was approaching the qualification of a true and noble heart from the wrong direction. Maybe Thundarr was the key? Why else would that infuriating man keep coming back to her thoughts?

She walked to the ground level and exited the tower. There were the slaves, working hard under the hot sun. Thundarr and the mok were near each other. Ariel crossed the ground in between them, her heels making a distinctive clicking noise with each step. When she was close she threw the hilt.

“Thundarr, catch!”

He turned and automatically caught the thrown hilt. The second it made contact with his skin a blazing blade of pure sunfire shot forward from the Sun Sword’s hilt.

“Lords of light!”

“It works for him. It really works for him!”

He slashes his chains with the Sun Sword. Another slash and he freed the mok. The two immediately started fighting the guards. He fought with his sword and the mok with whatever items he could get his clawed hands on.

“Princess Ariel has betrayed us,” was the last thing Ariel heard before she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She futilely thought to herself that she wasn’t betraying anything, she just wanted to see if he could use the Sun Sword.

When she woke up she was on the hard ground and she could hear a nearby fire. Ariel opened her eyes and sat up, reaching up to gingerly touch the bump forming on the back of her head. Thundarr was tending to the fire and the mok was sound asleep.

“Where am I?”

“Far away from that accursed place,” Thundarr answered her.

“What happened?”

“The machines tried to kill you.”

“And you helped me?”

“Yes, we are friends now.”

“Is it really that easy?”

He nodded to her.

“But I am the stepdaughter of Sabian? I am a wizard,” she protested.

Thundarr stopped and thought for a moment. “All wizards are evil. You are not evil so you can not be a wizard. But you use magic like a wizard. So you must be sorceress.”

Ariel laughed, “I don’t think there is any arguing with you. My name is Ariel.”

“It is good to meet the Sorceress Ariel,” Thundarr said as he helped her stand.”


End file.
